


A Home (Just for Us)

by RavenOfHope



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Confessions, Established Friendship, Future Friends to Lovers, Leaving the Dursleys, M/M, Portkeys, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Trope Thursday, penpals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24917917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenOfHope/pseuds/RavenOfHope
Summary: A pecking sound against the window caused Harry to look up from his mostly abandoned essay. A smile stretched across his face at the familiar eagle owl in front of his window. Harry got up to open the window and stepped aside to let the owl fly inside.“Hello, Horus,” he said as the owl landed gently on his desk, a package clutched between his talons.
Relationships: Theodore Nott/Harry Potter
Comments: 22
Kudos: 242





	A Home (Just for Us)

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own HP. No money is being made.
> 
> This Thursday's trope: Alternate (First) Meetings

The yellow light of the desk lamp tried valiantly to shine enough light for Harry to finish the essay he had been hunched over for hours. All his summer assignments would have been long finished if he didn’t have to do them at night. Damn the Dursley and their chores.

Pushing up his glasses, Harry rubbed his tired eyes. He hadn’t slept well in a long time, his rest plagued by nightmares and the occasional vision. Several people had offered to supply him with Dreamless Sleep during the summer, but he knew how addictive it was especially to someone who couldn’t even remember when his last restful night had been.

A pecking sound against the window caused him to look up from his mostly abandoned essay. A smile stretched across his face at the familiar eagle owl in front of his window. Harry got up to open the window and stepped aside to let the owl fly inside.

“Hello, Horus,” he said as the owl landed gently on his desk, a package clutched between his talons. “You got a package for me this time, huh?” The bird hooted imperiously at him, so Harry hurried to untie the string around the owl’s foot. Once he was freed, Horus joined Hedwig on her perch, the snowy owl greeting him with a chirp.

Harry turned to the package untying the string and stripping it of the packing paper without hesitation. If Hermione or Ron knew about his friend, they would probably chide him for trusting someone he had never met and who’s name he didn’t even know. But Harry couldn’t help but trust him.

They had been exchanging letters since the summer before second year when Horus had first shown up with a letter signed _A Friend_ that expressed the writer’s support for Harry and his sorrow for what the young wizard had to face at only eleven years old. He was the only one who had ever acknowledged the trauma Harry had experienced by having his teacher die right in front of him by _his own hands_.

He hadn’t been sure how or if he should answer the letter, but before long another one showed up, and then another one. Eventually Harry wrote back, and they began regular correspondence. They talked about anything and everything.

He learned that his friend was a pureblood and a Slytherin close to his own age. His parents were Death Eater affiliated. It wasn’t safe for them to be associated and he was afraid that Harry wouldn’t give him the chance to become his friend if he knew his name. The Gryffindor was saddened by the reasoning, but he didn’t push especially after his own knee-jerk reaction to learning his supposed friend was a Slytherin.

Any suspicions he had, had faded over time as his friend showed his unwavering support for Harry, always believing Harry’s version of events and never doubting his words. In turn Harry trusted him more and more telling his friend more about his childhood, his fears, and dreams than anyone else.

Only he knew how much Harry resented the adults who pushed him into the limelight and a war he had never wanted to be a part of as just a teenager. They didn’t see him as a sixteen year old barely trained wizard but as the _Chosen One_.I

n his last letter he had written that he was thinking about leaving it all behind. That he had no desire to save a world that had abandoned and vilified him at every turn. Now he had received a reply in form of a package.

Curious, he opened the plain box to find a letter on top of a neatly wrapped present. He opened the letter first.

_Dear Harry,_

_I can’t fault you for wishing to escape the Wizarding World after everything you have been through. If you find that is what you really want to do, I will help you of course._

_It pains me to see how much you suffer at the hands of those who should protect and educate you, those you call friends, teachers, and mentors. So many of them failed you at least once and I know you have forgiven them, but I can’t find it in me to do the same._

_They proclaim to love you and care for you and yet they brand you a liar and abandon you, doubt you when you need their belief the most. For what they put you through, all the pain I had to watch from afar because being as close as I desperately wanted to be would put us both in danger, I can’t forgive them._

_You have become my dearest friend over the years, Harry. Even though you don’t know my name, you changed my life and helped that lonely kid that wrote you that first letter become the person I am proud to be today. We have both changed a great deal since then and I do hope you consider me a close friend as well._

_Not long ago, there was a change in my life that I haven’t told you about yet. My father passed away recently. And as you know my mother died before I even started Hogwarts. It’s just me and the house elves living in the manor now. Because I’m almost seventeen I was emancipated and made Head of the family which opens a lot more doors for me and helps me close others._

_It also enables me to do something I wanted for a very long time: meet you face to face. I admit that I have avoided you at Hogwarts so our first meeting would not be tainted by the appearances we have to keep._

_I know you well enough to know you are reading this past midnight to avoid sleep and the nightmares. I won’t offer you Dreamless Sleep again, but I want to make you another offer I hope will help you sleep better in the future: safety and a new life._

_This letter is a portkey that will activate at seven o’clock today. The portkey will bring you directly into my manor which has some of the strongest ancestral wards in the country if not the world. I want you to live here with me, far away from your awful relatives and safe from Death Eaters._

_As you are turning sixteen tomorrow, you will be able to claim the Potter Lordship and become emancipated as well. It would give you a lot more freedom and protection and I want to help you gain that._

_I know that I am asking a lot of you with this. I’m asking you to trust me with your life and safety and I can understand that you are probably hesitant. I have thought about this for a long time – how to tell who I am, and to make sure you are safe – and with everything that is going on, I can’t wait any longer. Now is the time to move._

_I really hope that I will see you in a few hours because I realised something a while ago and I want to tell you about it in person._

_Please trust me._

_With love,_

_A Friend._

_P.S. The present in the package is an early birthday present and maybe the first step to your new life._

Harry set the letter down with his head swimming. He had a way out – if he wanted to take it that is. It was an incredibly tempting offer. He wasn’t going to leave the Wizarding World behind, but his old life would end.

It would end his existence as a pawn being pushed around by others and enable him to make his own choices. There was really only one answer to his friend’s offer. Harry looked at the once broken clock on his bedside table seeing that he had about four hours left until the portkey activated.

First, he turned his attention to the present still in the box. He unwrapped it carefully to find absolutely splendid robes in deep forest green, the dim light making them seem almost black. As his fingers brushed over the material, he discovered they were Acromantula silk as well. Embroidered on the front was what he recognised as the Potter Crest.

Touched by the thoughtful present, he put the robes carefully on the bed deciding to wear them after getting ready and taking a shower. Before that he had to pack though. Easily he decided to leave all of Dudley’s cast-offs behind packing only the few clothes he had managed to buy for himself during the summer and his school supplies.

With his room empty of everything he wanted to keep including his precious items hidden under the loose floorboards, he snuck downstairs to pick the lock on the cupboard under the stairs to get his broom. He had only practiced the lockpicking a few times with Fred and George, so he needed several tries to get the lock open.

Seeing the small dark space that had been his ‘bedroom’ for ten years, Harry had to swallow his anger with some difficulty. He grabbed his broom, closed and locked the door and didn’t look back as he went back upstairs.

In his room, he was greeted by twin chirps from the two owls still sitting together on Hedwig’s perch. He had almost forgotten that they were there. He opened the window and Horus flew right out. Hedwig landed on Harry’s shoulder first and nipped his ear affectionately. He returned the affection by stroking her breast feathers.

“Follow Horus, girl. We are leaving here, for good this time.” She hooted happily at him and took off. Harry closed the window and surveyed the room he had somewhat managed to make his own over the years. It had never been home to him though.

Harry closed his eyes briefly at the thought. _Home_. He would be able to have a real one now. That spurred him back into action. He cleaned and packed the perch before double checking that he had everything inside the trunk, he wanted to keep.

Shortly after six, he managed to sneak a shower without waking the Dursleys. It was the weekend so no one would get up anytime soon. He debated leaving a note or letting it be before deciding to write a short message.

_I will be emancipated tomorrow and I’m leaving on my own free will to live with a friend. I’m sure, you are as happy to get rid of me as I am to leave. You might want to consider going into hiding or at least moving away, because the war is picking up. You probably don’t believe me, but you will be in danger._

_\- Harry_

The advice was probably more than they deserved, but they were unlikely to listen to it anyway. Harry was done being their maid and punching bag. He decided to put writing letters to the Weasleys and Hermione off until he was settled at his friend’s and figured how to tell them what he had done.

Ten to seven, he was ready to go with his belongings packed and the letter already clutched in his hand. His heart seemed permanently lodged into his throat and he was pleading to whatever deity that might be listening for this not to be a trap or a prank.

Finally at point seven, he felt the familiar hook pulling behind his navel and the world began to spin. When it stopped, he found himself flat on his back in a dark panelled sitting room. The morning sun was already shining into the room catching on ornate furniture.

“Hello, Harry. I’m so glad you came,” a voice sounded from behind him. Startled Harry turned around coming face to face with, “Nott?” His astonishment was clear to hear in his voice. All those years his friend had been someone he shared multiple classes a week with and someone he in fact never personally talked to before. “Please, call me Theo.”

Blue eyes watched his reaction carefully, but to his own surprise Harry didn’t feel any negative emotions. Theo was his friend, the person he trusted more than anyone else. Nothing really had changed.

“I’m sorry about your father,” he said finally to break the growing silence. Theo just shook his head. “Don’t be. He was a … difficult man to get along with and a top Death Eater. Right now, I’m trying my best to make him disappointed in me.” The Slytherin grinned and Harry couldn’t help but laugh. He felt something unwind between them at that moment.

“Come on, I’ll give you a tour of your new home.” Harry felt happiness sing through him at that. He crossed the distance between them noting that Theo was several inches taller than him as he came up next to the other boy.

“Wasn’t there something, you wanted to tell me?”, Harry asked as Theo started to lead him around the huge manor. The Slytherin blushed slightly and looked away before a determined look entered his eyes. “I didn’t want to overwhelm right away, but if you really want to know, I will tell you.”

Harry nodded. “I do want to know. You’ve made me curious.” Theo smiled slightly at that. “Very well.” He stopped walking causing the Gryffindor to stop as well. The soft gaze that was suddenly directed at him caused a blush to heat Harry’s cheeks.

“When I started to come up with this plan, I realised something. I didn’t anticipate it, but you do always cause surprising emotions for me.” Theo looked Harry straight in the eyes seemingly right into his soul. “I have fallen in love with you, Harry. You have completely and utterly captured my heart with your energy, your compassion and of course your letters, that showed me the trust you have in me.”

Harry wasn’t sure, he was actually breathing. No one had ever confessed their love to him. “I don’t expect you to return my feelings. You only just found out who I am after all. If you are uncomfortable now, I can arrange for something different- ,” thinking back to the feeling of happiness and safety that had been bubbling inside him since he arrived which he hadn’t felt in, well, _ever_ , Harry reached for Theo’s hand causing the other’s word to taper off as he stilled.

Harry looked at their hands as he spoke. “You’re right, it’s too early for me to know my feelings. But I don’t want to leave, and I especially don’t want _you_ to leave. You wrote that I have become your dearest friend, but you have become mine as well. I trust you more than anyone and I told you things, I would never tell Ron or Hermione. In a way, I do already love you.”

He looked up to lock eyes with Theo again. “You said, this is my new home and I want it to be - with you.” Theo’s eyes widened and he used the leverage he had on Harry’s hand to pull the shorter male into a hug which Harry melted into.

“Thank you for trusting me,” Theo whispered. Harry pulled back to smile at him through his veil of happy tears.

“Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated. If you want to chat or send me a prompt, visit me on Tumblr.


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